That moment was nothing, though in comparison to hearing our remarkable orchestra perform to a packed house on Tuesday night. There is a palpable sense of excitement in the air when we are on tour, it's kind of like how much fun field trips were when we were in grade school.

You're with your big group of friends in a new and fun place hearing and learning things for the first time!

Playing in San Francisco was a delight. Although it's always hard to change halls. Switching from Disney Hall to Davies Hall is never easy. The Corigliano symphony was actually so well received. I am sure this music particularly rings a bell here. There was a standing ovation, the orchestra was magnificent and Gustavo was very inspired. Then Tchaikovsky, Brahms ... All went well. The acoustics in Davies Hall are much dryer than in Disney, which, in a way, makes it easier to listen to your colleagues. I could hear things in San Francisco I couldn't hear in L.A., which was interesting.

After playing our first two tour concerts in San Francisco, we were so lucky to have a free day in Jack Kerouac's city.

We're 2 for 2 in San Francisco! The LA Phil's second night at Davies Hall yielded a second standing ovation from the audience after the orchestra, Gustavo Dudamel and Yuja Wang concluded Wednesday's program featuring Daníel Bjarnason's new work Blow Bright, Brahms' Second Symphony and Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3.

Orchestra and audience in a mutual salute after Wednesday night's performance.

The crowd on its feet after last night's concert inside San Francisco's Davies Hall.

The LA Phil's first stop along our North American Tour was a wild success! With San Francisco's gorgeous Davies Hall as the backdrop, Gustavo Dudamel and the orchestra brought the audience to its feet after stirring performances of John Corigliano's First Symphony and Tchaikovsky's Fifth.

Richard Scheinin's piece in the San Jose Mercury News applauded the LA Phil for unearthing Corigliano's "remarkable work, a 40-minute howl from the composer's soul that, criminally, is not often performed."

CNN may have just declared our very own Gehryland "one of the world's 15 most beautiful concert halls," but Gustavo Dudamel, the orchestra and a merry band of artists, crew members, sound engineers and big-time management staff are currently gearing up to leave Walt Disney Concert Hall in the dust ... The LA Phil hits the road early next week to kick off our 2014 North American Tour!

LA Phil Music Director Gustavo Dudamel stands in front of the LA Phil's truck outside New York's Lincoln Center following the last performance of the LA Phil's 2013 Tour.

The stage platforms are struck, the instrument cases are packed and the big LA Phil truck is rolling back to Los Angeles.

Another tour is in the books and we think it's fair to say that this one has been successful. From London to Lucerne to Paris to New York, critics raved, audiences cheered and we at the LA Phil were once again reminded why we do what we do.

Led by our Music Director, we took a typically audacious set of programs on the road. We played programs that said, "This is who we are and this is what we think is important." And we brought the audiences along with us - audiences that may have been skeptical were won over, note by note, until they were standing at the end of the concerts. And, sometimes, even cheering DURING the concerts.

LA Phil Music Director Gustavo Dudamel flashes a quick smile as the doors close on the famed elevator to the stage at Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall before Thursday's final performance of the 2013 Tour.

The reviews are coming in, and it's official - New York loves the LA Phil and Gustavo Dudamel. Enough, anyway, to break into spontaneous applause at unforeseen times during Thursday's performance of Stravinsky's The Firebird.

And why shouldn't the audience applaud when they might usually not? After all, New York Times writer Anthony Tomassini, in a combined review of the orchestra's two concerts at Avery Fisher Hall, writes:

It is exciting to hear this charismatic conductor taking risks and following a vision. Now in his fourth season as music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, he has galvanized the city and become for all conductors a model of community outreach and education. Not bad.